NCAAB - Sports Rumors

UCLA is "99%" of the way to replacing Kevin Love with another highly regarded center. That's the likelihood that J'Mison "Bobo" Morgan, a 6-foot-11 high school star from Dallas, will play for the Bruins next season, his mother, Bianca, said Tuesday.

An official announcement, she added, could come as soon as today. Morgan was rated fourth among high school centers by Rivals.com after averaging 13.5 points, 11.0 rebounds and 4.0 blocks a game last season. He signed with Louisiana State in November, but that was before the Tigers fired John Brady as coach, replacing him with Stanford's Trent Johnson.

At Morgan's request, Louisiana State on Tuesday released him from his commitment, allowing him to reopen the recruiting process. During his original recruitment, UCLA, Kansas and Alabama were Morgan's other finalists, and Bianca Morgan said UCLA "now feels right." The addition of Morgan makes UCLA's incoming recruiting class far and away the nation's best, according to analysts such as Dave Telep of Rivals.com and Jerry Meyer of Scout.com.

Source: Los Angeles Times

• 5 Comments
• Permanent Link
• Email this Entry

USC's top basketball recruit might change his college choice if the Trojans face severe sanctions by the NCAA over illegal extra benefits allegedly received by O.J. Mayo. DeMar DeRozan, one of the nation's most highly sought high school players, signed with USC in November, but his father and older half-brother said Tuesday he might consider other schools if the Trojans sustain a quick and heavy penalty according to the Los Angeles Times.

NCAA investigating allegations involving USC's Mayo Tito Maddox sees himself in O.J. Mayo saga"This is a good wake-up call," Jermaine DeRozan, DeMar's half-brother, said. "I'm just hoping SC doesn't get put on probation [If it does], I would get . . . out of there."

Recruits who sign letters of intent are required to gain a release from that school to be eligible immediately without sitting out a season. The NCAA and Pacific 10 Conference are investigating Mayo because of allegations that he received tens of thousands of dollars in cash and gifts from Rodney Guillory, a Los Angeles events promoter said to be acting as a representative of a sports agency.

Source: Los Angeles Times

• 7 Comments
• Permanent Link
• Email this Entry

Tito Maddox is watching the O.J. Mayo saga unfold, "stunned by the parallel" of reports illustrating allegations that cash and gifts prohibited by college rules were funneled to the NBA-bound college star.

"Same story, same guy," Maddox, 26, said Monday in front of his Carson home during an interview with the Los Angeles Times.
Tito Maddox was talking about Los Angeles events promoter Rodney Guillory, whom Maddox said he was befriended by in the summer of 1998, just before his senior year at Compton High. Guillory faces allegations that he provided Mayo cash, meals, clothes, a flat-screen television, cellphone service and other services on behalf of Bill Duffy Associates Sports Management, the agency the top guard prospect recently announced would represent him as he turned pro.

The allegations were made by former associate Louis Johnson on a segment of ESPN's "Outside the Lines" broadcast Sunday. Johnson said Guillory received about $200,000 and a sports utility vehicle from BDA, sharing an estimated $30,000 of what he received with Mayo. For Maddox, it was a story that rang all too familiar.

Source: Los Angeles Times

• 18 Comments
• Permanent Link
• Email this Entry

Former USC star O.J. Mayo accepted benefits in violation of NCAA rules from a Los Angeles events promoter while in high school and his one year of college, according to a former friend of the star freshman guard.

Louis Johnson said Sunday on ESPN's "Outside the Lines" that Mayo was given around $30,000 in cash and various gifts over the past four years from Rodney Guillory, a 43-year-old promoter in L.A. Johnson also alleged that Guillory acted as a runner for BDA Sports Management and estimated that BDA provided around $200,000 to Guillory, who gave a portion of the money to Mayo.

In exchange for the payments and gifts, Mayo gave a verbal agreement to let BDA represent him when he turned pro, according to Johnson.

Mayo is the second high-profile USC athlete to be accused of improper benefits in two years. The NCAA is still investigating findings of a Yahoo! Sports report into former Heisman Trophy-winning running back Reggie Bush, who, along with his family, appeared to receive financial gifts of close to $100,000 from marketing agents.

Mayo denied any wrongdoing in a statement to ESPN, saying: "I have been through investigations by the NCAA, the Pac-10 and USC before I attended school and during the time I have been here. … If these claims were true I would suspect they would have been discovered by one of these organizations."

Source: ESPN's "Outside the Lines"Los Angeles Times

• 98 Comments
• Permanent Link
• Email this Entry

When Darren Collison was hearing he might be the No. 9 pick in the NBA draft, and as his father Dennis and mother June were hearing from NBA scouts and general managers that Collison almost certainly would be from a No. 15 pick to a No. 22 pick, Collison said he thought his decision was made.

"Up until last week," Collison said, "I was ready to declare. I was totally confident of where my position was. It just happened this week after I really put more thought into it that I was 100% sure. I'm coming back."

After three of UCLA's starters from this year's team announced they would be making themselves eligible for the NBA draft, Collison, a junior point guard and third-team All-American, said Saturday that he would return for his senior season at UCLA according to the Los Angeles Times.

Source: Los Angeles Times

• 15 Comments
• Permanent Link
• Email this Entry

In Johnny Dawkins, Stanford found a respected coach from another storied program-certainly a favorable mix in the eyes of athletic director Bob Bowlsby.

Dawkins, a longtime assistant coach at Duke under Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski, has been hired as the Cardinal's new coach. He replaces Pac-10 Coach of the Year Trent Johnson, who left for LSU earlier this month.

Stanford said Saturday that Dawkins will be formally introduced in a news conference on campus Monday.

Source: Associated Press

• 3 Comments
• Permanent Link
• Email this Entry

The latest name to emerge as a possible candidate for the head- coaching vacancy at Stanford is Larry Brown. Brown, who won an NCAA championship with Kansas and an NBA championship with Detroit, is now a front-office official with the Philadelphia 76ers. He wants to get back into coaching at the college or NBA level, and his name has arisen in connection with a number of job openings. It no doubt will be mentioned again when NBA jobs become available.

Brown reportedly was genuinely interested in the recent opening at Providence College that was filled by Keno Davis, and Brown even showed interest last year in the Princeton coaching job that went to Sydney Johnson.

Whether Stanford or athletic director Bob Bowlsby would be willing to take on Brown, a 67-year-old who has a history of short stays, is another question. The front-runner for the Stanford job still seems to be Old Dominion head coach Blaine Taylor, a former Stanford assistant, although there is no indication that an agreement with Taylor is imminent according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

• 17 Comments
• Permanent Link
• Email this Entry